Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 9) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday confirmed that he will fly again to the United States in November to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting.
Marcos attended last year’s APEC Summit in Thailand, citing climate change as the “overarching” concern among world leaders.
This year’s APEC events will be hosted by San Francisco, California from Nov. 12 to 18.
“I look forward to joining fellow APEC leaders in California later this year,” Marcos said during the courtesy call of US-ASEAN Business Council members at Malacañang. “This will be my third trip to the US since I assumed office.”
After becoming president, Marcos first travelled to the US in September 2022 to attend the 77th United Nations General Assembly. In late April this year, he returned to the US for a five-day official visit.
Marcos said that with energy security high on the economic agenda, he is particularly interested in discussing during APEC possible solutions that align with the Philippines’ climate goals and support his administration’s plans to transform the country into an upper middle-income economy by 2025.
“All efforts to increase the number of power sources lean towards clean energy,” the president said.
“That being the case, I am interested in the potential of nuclear energy, especially in light of new technologies and innovations that allow the use of smaller scale, modular, nuclear reactors, and other advanced [reactors] technologies that we see as being safer and more efficient than the more traditional designs of nuclear power production,” he added.
Besides meeting with his counterparts from across the globe, Marcos is also expected to hold more discussions with American business groups on possible investments in the country, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez earlier said.
